Man, where the hell has Phil Alden Robinson been?  It’s not like the talented writer-director or films such as Field Of Dreams and Sneakers had been cranking out a great amount of material on a consistent basis before, but he’s been mostly on the sidelines for nearly a decade.  However, it looks like he might be in the market for some honest work again, or in this case, some dishonest work.  THR.com reports that Robinson is in talks to script J.J. Abrams’ untitled heist pic.  Abrams’ project is reportedly based on a piece in Wired Magazine, “The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist,” by Joshua Davis.

The article, the rights to which Paramount acquired in March 2009,
described the true story of an unprecedented diamond heist in Antwerp,
Belgium, and the crew that pulled it off. In early 2003, a small group
of Italian thieves circumvented 10 layers of security to access a vault
beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and make off with a purported $100
million in diamonds, gold and jewelry (the actual value remains a
mystery).

Robinson had completely fallen off my radar.  He had a nine year gap in writing gigs until he put in some work at last year’s Oscars.  The last major motion picture he wrote was the aforementioned excellent Sneakers.  And the last major thing he directed was 2002’s The Sum of All Fears.  At this point, Robinson is slated only for scripting duties, and not the director’s chair.  Thankfully, Robinson also has another project lined up: Sinatra.